Well, you mentioned Color Spray. It's not unusual but it has zero level-dependent variables and it's certainly useful for staying alive. Similarly Sleep, Cause Fear, Charm Person.
Mudball, Glue Seal or Adhesive Spittle could allow the NPC to run away from enemies. Without support it wouldn't be advisable for her to try and fight an enemy debuffed by these.
Any spell which lasts a minute/level and can be dismissed after combat would be hard to use to tell her level. e.g. Gravity Bow, Dancing Darkness, Expeditious Retreat.
Chilling Amplification on Ray of Frost might be a useful backup, and one of the few damaging effects which isn't dependent on level.
Sleep is a good way for a wizard to deal with a bunch of level 1 PCs.
Spells like Obscuring mist, Cause fear, Ray of sickening/exhaustion wouldn't instantly give away his level.
Glueseal or Peacebound are rarely used and, should you provide a flashy description, would make a great impression.
Windy escape is an immediate action defense spell that should really surprise them.
Unprepared Combatant isn't a common debuff, I'm thinking, in the min/CL category.
Web Bolt is an odd attack spell from the ARG in that category.
Even better, the following spells do not reveal CL at all,
except potentially for a save DC (with the spell level masked by, I assume, a high stat bonus):
Bungle,
Deja Vu,
Delusional Pride,
Stone Shield (ARG),
Touch of Combustion (ARG).
Besides spells a Sorcerer could have some interesting bloodline powers like Claws or various spell-like abilities. If your players are walking rules encyclopedias it might be tough to fool them, but there are tons of bloodline powers out there, and most folks probably haven't seen them all.
The best long term survival tool around that level might be some healing capability. Getting Cure spells on your list isn’t easy, but even a 3rd level Sorcerer might be able to afford a wand for use with UMD. Depending on spell and material component availability I guess spells like Celestial or Fiendish Healing could help too. Like if the NPC has a literal “deal with the devil” in the form of an imp who gives him drops of blood in exchange for...something...
Another thing which might help a dungeon survivalist is having allies. A Sylvan Sorcerer would have an animal companion. With the Boon Companion feat it could even be full power. Depending on how you play things some PCs might initially assume the Sorcerer was a Druid or some other class. If you’d like to add to that confusion then taking a Variant Multiclass could help. A Wizard VMC could be a cheap (1 feat) way to get a full featured familiar. I guess that a Figment could make a pretty good short range scout since it comes back to life each day. You could also give it a new evolution on a daily basis to deal with whatever was needed (maybe the ability to breathe water, +8 on Climb, Disable Device, Survival, etc)
I guess the Alarm spell could also be useful for securing the area, especially if there are a lot of stealthy creatures who like to attack people while they're asleep (possibly not as critical if you have an animal with Scent).
She might have better than WBL, which would help a lot. I'm thinking specifically if she had items with activations, and could Bluff people into thinking she had cast Invisibility, or whatever.
Otherwise, she'll look like she doesn't have very many spells/day, unless the party spends relatively little time with her.
Is it me or is stone shield amazing?
Keep Watch
Dazzling Blade
Clarion Call + Intimidate skill
Alchemical Tinkering
Auditory Hallucination
Expeditious Evacuation
Darting Duplicate
Attitude will be a useful tool for this NPC, spamming low level spells, striding confidently between rooms (they already know are safe), and not deigning to "waste" higher spells on puny enemies the PC's can take care of instead. High dex and mithril armor can create the illusion of higher defenses (say from mage armor). Practical experience (circumstance bonus to KNOW X) can create the illusion of higher level divination spells providing guidance.
Spells have been mostly covered, except maybe some friendly ones such as true strike, detect undead/secret doors, animate rope (nice for saving flight/levitate slots), Jump (same as rope trick), monkey fish (D), and my personal favorite - Recharge innate magic.
As well, depending on race you can further obfuscate their level with SLA's and racial abilities: Ex) Gnome magic can increase the perceived slots available allowing for much greater spell spamming. Fey Magic alternate racial for most races, add 3 cantrips and a 1st level in specific circumstances. Some traits grant limited cantrips as well, increasing available 0 lvl slots that experienced players will calculate her level as being much higher.
Sorc lvl 3= 5 0's, 3 1's known
Racials and traits = 9-11 0's, 4-5 1st. = Sorc lvl 10.
Coupled with high casting stat you can have quite a few spells in a large "variety" to throw around confounding experienced sorcerer players.
Heighten Awareness was the 1st spell I thought of.
dottin'
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It's even better than that since it's one creature touched/2 levels.
This essentially means that by level 8, your typical party of adventurers doesn't need to sleep anymore, with a single daily casting of a 1st level spell.
The best long term survival tool around that level might be some healing capability. Getting Cure spells on your list isn’t easy, but even a 3rd level Sorcerer might be able to afford a wand for use with UMD. Depending on spell and material component availability I guess spells like Celestial or Fiendish Healing could help too. Like if the NPC has a literal “deal with the devil” in the form of an imp who gives him drops of blood in exchange for...something...
Celestial Healing will heal 1 hp if cast, 0 if a wand.
Infernal Healing will heal 10 hp.
Trying to get Cure Light Wounds won't be as good, as it will give d8+3 (~7.5 hp) if cast or d8+1 (~5.5 hp) from a wand.
/cevah
Wow, Keep Watch seems pretty amazing. Getting attacked while you sleep can be a big problem in some games.
@Cevah - Yeah, Infernal Healing is clearly the numerically superior choice for low level healing. Sometimes it isn't available though, in which case the standard issue wand of CLW often has to suffice.
Infernal Healing can be one of your 3 spells known. So it is easily available.
/cevah
Speak with Animals and a solid diplomacy could be a solid way of surviving, assuming the NPC used it often enough to make a deal with local predators to not eat her. Best if it ends there though, as if it seems like the local animals attack for her it becomes clear how she survives.
Fey Bloodline's laughing touch and entangle abilities are also both helpful, as neither inherently imply CL but both make escaping threats considerably easier.
Silent Image may also be a solid trick for surviving (assuming a DC bump makes the save not reveal CL) as most sapient creatures can be scared away by an image of a shadow/ghost/similar incorporeal threat assuming it is sufficiently powerful. Plus, if the PCs interact peacefully it doesn't have any obvious combat applications.